Face Off
by pandorathexplora
Summary: COMPLETE! Sam and Dean battle a shapeshifter when Sam's new abilities stun Dean and the boys now question each other. Angsty Protective Dean and Confused Sam. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! Short summary: Sam and Dean battle a bad guy and each other, they argue about Sam's extracurriculars, and generally have scars to show for it in the end. Protective/Angsty Dean and Powerful, but confused Sam....I guess?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. **

**Rated: T for language and violence.**

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Face Off

They were hunters. Violence came with the job description. Fear didn't.

Since they were young, their father had taught the boys to hunt villains without question. Without fear. They could meticulously formulate a plan of action, but when it came down to it, the monsters never followed the route of predictability. No. What mattered was the strike. Often times, the predators would become the prey. The boys would turn a dark corner in some abandoned alley only to meet with a seething red-eyed demon that was all too happy to introduce them to terror.

The boys were human after all.

But lately, the hunters had created a dark reputation. Their hunting skills, along with their blades, had sharpened. Their determination was matched only by the speed and ferocity with which they slaughtered the things that went bump in the night.

Their kills were colder. Their hesitations – fewer.

But fear, however, had gripped each brother's gun like skeletal, white hands and forced their sites in a new direction.

And now they stood, facing off, guns pointed at each other just waiting for the next move.

"Who the hell are you?!" Dean shouted behind the barrel of his own gun, still pointed at Sam who mirrored him.

"Same question for you!" Sam replied, his vision locked on his brother.

It had all happened so fast. Just minutes before, the shapeshifter had pulled a gun. He could clearly see the two boys aiming right back at him from behind the abandoned house's shutters, the window slightly raised to make room for their own weapons. The shapeshifter aimed and fired for the one on the left.

Sam saw the shot coming from a mile away.

As the bullet raced towards his eyes, Dean reacted without thought and shot the shapeshifter square in the chest just as the monster's own bullet tapped against the glass where Sam's forehead rested.

The glass didn't so much as crack.

The bleeding shapeshifter's body still convulsed from the bullet wound in his chest not twenty feet away from them. Gasping for his last breath, he should have felt true terror as these two humans had bested him. But now seeing them standing off against each other, he only knew confusion upon death's hold.

"Why did you shoot him?! We weren't even sure that was a real shapeshifter!" Sam cried, gun still raised. "He could've just been some human nut-job!"

"He went for my brother," Dean retorted, eyes narrowing behind his site, "and I'm not sure that's you."

"Yeah, well Dean wouldn't kill somebody he thought might be human!" Sam said, validating his own need for his raised weapon.

Silence surrounded their terror. The house creaked and the only movement came from the dust that fell slowly along the blades of light through shutter blinds. Each brother's chest rose and fell at the same speed, and their stances, right foot firmly cemented behind their left, mimicked each other exactly. The barrels of their guns along with their own eyes remain locked on their reflections.

Through unspoken communication, the boys made a decision.

"One," Dean said.

"Two," Sam replied.

"Three!" they shouted together as their guns fell to their sides, hands still gripping their hilts in case the need rose again.

"You could have told me," Dean said accusingly.

"Told you what?" Sam questioned, his eyes scanning Dean's for clues.

"Oh, I don't know, Sammy," Dean replied, "that I shouldn't get spooked when you pull another 'I'm not a demon, but I got all their tricks' move on me, again!"

Sam's eyebrows went up, realization slowly crawling across his face.

"I-I don't know what you m— " Sam denied.

"Don't you give me that. Don't you give me another lie," Dean shot back, his pointed finger punctuating his intensity. "Last I checked, we weren't hiding behind bulletproof glass, Sam!"

"Dean, I--"

"Dean, nothing" the older hunter continued, his anger still on the rise. "Just tell me now. Just tell me," Dean said, now gripping the front of his brother's shirt in his fist. "What else can you do?"

Sam looked down with shock at how aggressively his brother had grabbed him, like he was some sort of monster.

"Let me go, Dean," Sam said, softly.

"Hell, no, I'm not going to let you go," Dean strengthened his hold on his brother, but not before catching a glimmer of light in his younger sibling's eyes.

"Let me go," Sam said, stronger now.

"Forget about th— " Dean was about to reply, when suddenly he felt his grip loosening around Sam's shirt. His face went cold as he watched his own hand, with a mind of its own, releasing the fabric between each finger, cringing back in what looked like fear, and falling to his side – obedient, calm, and waiting further instruction.

"That," is all Sam said.

Dean's mouth dropped as he stepped away from what he thought was his younger brother.

"No, what the hell, what the f***ing hell," Dean said more to himself than the looming figure before him.

Dean instinctively raised his gun, again, immediately forgetting that whatever stood before him could easily disarm him.

"Dean, put the gun down," Sam pleaded. He didn't want to _make_ Dean do anything. But his brother had asked what he could do, and he'd finally shown him. However right now, Sam decided, he didn't want to scare him again.

"No," Dean said, behind a gun that acted more like a security blanket than a weapon. "No, this is too much, Sam." Dean shook his head slowly, denying what he had seen.

What he had _felt_.

Controlling demons, exorcizing them, that was one thing. But stopping bullets mid-air? Controlling humans? Shit, controlling his own brother?

"This is wrong!" Dean shouted. His teeth grit against each other as a thousand thoughts swarmed through him.

"You asked what I could do. I'm showing you, Dean," Sam replied, his barriers torn. "I don't want to keep secrets from you. Not anymore."

"No secrets? Yeah?" Dean said sarcastically, cocking his head to the side.

"Yes!" Sam insisted.

"Oh, okay," Dean said, still angry and dropping his gun in a feigned show of ease. "Since we're being so open with each other, how about you tell me about your plans?"

"Huh?" Sam asked, genuinely confused.

"Your plans to take over the world? You know, for when you give into all this. It kind of goes with the f***ing cliché!"

Dean meant for his words to hurt. He wanted Sam to feel what he felt, and he had wanted to use the only thing from an older brother's arsenal that could sting without punches.

Through the pools now forming in his eyes, Dean saw Sam's image waver. Or maybe Sam actually was shaking.

"You think I don't know that? You think I'm not worried about my supposed dark fate every single day?!" Sam's voice quivered with his image.

Sam raised a pointed finger at a standing mirror in the hallway next to them, eyes still locked on Dean. "You think that I'm completely unaware that THIS…" Sam took a breath, and in an instant, the mirror in front of his outstretched arm shattered violently. He let his eyes fall from Dean as he surrendered, "…doesn't come with a price?"

Dean flinched at the sight of his shaking brother, a need to protect now outweighing his need to fight.

"Geez, Sammy," is all Dean could say, questions pouring through him. When had Sam become so strong? Was this what he was doing every night with Ruby?

"Well," Dean came to an easy solution. "Just stop. Whatever made you think that you had to start practicing with Ruby, just know that you don't have to."

"Really, Dean? Just stop? That's your answer?"

"It sure as hell ain't a question!" Dean replied. "We've been hunting for years without anything but what dad taught us. So why change now?"

Sam stepped back out of sheer shock. "Because _Lilith_ is breaking the seals to the apocalypse and a little rock salt and matchsticks aren't going to stop her!" Sam barked, exasperated. "We need to use everything we got!"

As if on cue, the musty old house rattled and shook in reply.

The battles for the day, it seemed, were not finished.

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**So what do you think? I have some more of this story written, and if you want to see what happens, let me know! As usual for me, this isn't going to be an epic story, probably a few chapters. And I promise we'll have some more action for those of you wanting to know what all that rumbling is. Trust me, it ain't an earthquake! :) **


	2. Chapter 2

THEN: The boys argue in an old house about Sam's "extracurriculars" when the house suddenly shivers around them.

_As if on cue, the musty old house rattled and shook in reply._

_The battles for the day, it seemed, were not finished._

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Chapter 2

The boys' footing slipped and each fell from the tumult around them.

"Are you doing this?!" Dean cried as he tried to maintain his balance against the stair banister.

"NO!" Sam yelled back, equally balancing himself by hugging the archway where he stood.

"Well, I had to ask!" Dean said, just dodging a falling banister. "God knows I love your surprises!"

Sam, struggling to get out of the way of the splintering wood that was breaking around him, too, was shocked that Dean could still be sarcastic at times like these.

"Forget it," Dean shouted. "Let's get out of here!"

"Right," Sam responded, covering his face with the front of his button-up in order to block accidental dust inhalation.

Sam ran behind his brother out of the crumbling house. Neither stopped to look behind them until their feet hit the withering lawn in front of it.

In synch, each brother turned behind them to behold the house's epic display, which could only be described in three words.

"Steven fudgin' Speilberg!" Dean yelled into a sudden blast of raging wind.

"What?!" Sam shouted, his gaze firmly cemented on the disaster happening in front of him.

Dean ignored him and gripped his brother's shoulder as he watched the house shiver and shake, lights exploding out of each window as if skylights had been placed behind them. His mouth fell open as he heard the sounds of breaking glass and twisting boards ricochet into his eardrums. Finally, as if by some invisible hand from the sky, the roof of the house slowly crushed into itself and the boys could do nothing but watch.

"What's happening?" Sam asked the obvious, suddenly aware that a clear sky contradicted with the chaos in front and the frigid winds all around them.

No sooner was his question asked that all became clear. Literally and figuratively. The house and wind stilled. The noise ceased. The wrath of an angry god subsided for the response that waited in the distance.

"Now that I have your attention," a little girl cooed. A friendly giggle danced along the now tepid winds.

Dean and Sam's eyes met for only a split second before they turned around sharply, each deftly reinstating their warrior stances against a familiar enemy. As brothers should, they stood side by side, guns raised, and each pair of hazel eyes narrowed while Dean snarled at the ten-year-old in pigtails.

"Bitch."

Lilith winked. "Howdy, pardner!" Dressed in boots and a denim dress, Lilith tipped a disturbingly pink cowboy hat at the hunters that stood before her. Lilith's casual tone and innocent appearance grated against what she really was – a demon who brought blood in rivers that was just a part of her as those curly, blond rivulets around her. "Are ya fixin' to do me in good this time, boys?"

Lilith put a hand at her hip, casually waiting as if she had just asked the time.

Sam fired. He couldn't do anything else.

The bullet zoomed to its target, but slowed to rest upon the tip of Lilith's butterfly eyelashes.

"Oh, no!" Lilith faked horror, bringing a delicately small hand over her mouth. "Ya almost got me there, Sam!" She giggled another sick sound and smiled a buck-toothed smile. "You, of all people, should know that bullets can't stop people like us!"

Dean didn't hesitate and fired a round. Once again, the bullet slowed to rest in the air.

"Seriously! Boys, now you're just being silly!" With a slight flick of her wrist, the diminutive girl sent the second bullet flying backwards, straight into Dean's shoulder.

Dean didn't fall. He didn't scream and shout like they do in the movies. In real life, bullets hurt like hell but they didn't topple you over. And neither would he. As the bullet tore into his flesh, he took a small step back, slowly looking down at the emerging stain on his white T-shirt, disbelief in his eyes.

"She shot me…" Dean muttered, biting his lip from what originally felt like a bee sting that had now transformed into blistering fire on his shoulder.

"Dean!" Sam cried out to his brother, his eyes widening in panic. _Not again, not again, not death, not hell no, not again. _

With his left arm, Sam caught his now swaying brother, while the right arm still held the gun on Lilith.

"Awww," Lilith clapped her hands in delight. "Sammy's got revenge on one side and," Lilith gagged a little at her next words, "_love_ on the other. Yuck!"

Pleased with her attempt at poetic observation, Lilith continued, "What will he choose?"

Sam felt his knees beginning to buckle beneath him, the weight of his weakening brother bringing him down, down, further into the rotting grass.

"Wow," Lilith continued her rant. "He really IS holding you down!"

Sam clenched his teeth against her viciousness, splitting his gaze between the falling brother at his side and the snickering little girl that grew taller with each passing moment.

"Sammy, I'm fine," Dean sputtered between shortened breaths. "Don't let this bitch get to you." Dean had dropped his gun and was now pushing back the blood from his own gaping wound. The pain was suddenly too much and Dean surrendered his entire weight to the floor, bringing his younger brother to kneel next to him.

"Dean, you're really hurt," Sam said quickly.

"Forget it. Get Lilith. It's just a scratch," Dean lied. The minute the bullet had seared into him, Dean knew that his injury was serious. If he didn't see a hospital soon…Dean shut his eyes and the thought. "God, just go!"

Lilith laughed at the brotherly display. What girl wouldn't want the handsome Winchesters fighting over her? This was just too good.

"Yeah, Sam," she mocked. "Come and get me! That is…" she locked her hands behind her and innocently rocked back and forth, "if you can."

From his kneeling position at his brother's side, Sam looked into Dean's eyes for any sign of help and was met only with an angry, cold stare.

Dean cried through the pain and frustration, "Kill the bitch!"

Sam shook his head. "I ca-can't," he sputtered. "Bullets won't— "

Sam froze at Dean's look of "Are you kidding me?!" despite the pain he was in. God how could he be so stupid? Ruby's knife was still tucked away in his waistband! All Sam would need is to get close enough to Lilith to stab in through her heart or any other place where a vital organ could be ruptured.

With a look of understanding, Sam nodded as Dean clutched his shoulder and signaled Sam, one final time, to go.

No longer torn between but embracing both love and revenge, Sam gripped the gun in his right and brought his body up out of the soot and weeds surrounding him. Lilith watched merrily as Samuel Winchester, dirt staining his jeans and skin preparing to add new scars, rose higher and higher to stand before her – a face off to end them all.

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**Send some reviews! Good, bad, boring? I really want to know what works and what doesn't! :) I'll get the next chapter up soon!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry, I went on a random road trip to Orlando and wrote these next chapters on the way here. Keep those reviews coming! I'd love to know what you want to see more of/less of! **

**Then: Sam and Dean see Lilith. Sam's about to face off with the evil little demon.**

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Chapter 3

"You might as well drop the gun, Sham," Lilith lisped through a toothy grin. Sam didn't know if the body Lilith inhabited always possessed this lisp or if Lilith just thought it added to her twisted sense of adorability and villainy.

Either way, Sam shuddered at her voice like nails on chalkboard.

"Drop it!" she commanded, and Sam felt his hands submit to her demands. In his horror, he watched in slow motion his right hand that had so passionately embraced its weapon, let its grip loosen. Feeling like a marionette, Sam struggled to fight for control of but, still, his fingers willingly abandoned the gun and his entire right arm fell limp at his side. The gun laid impotent right at his feet, but Sam never felt further from it.

"You haven't been the only one sharpening your skills," Lilith said, skipping over to a nearby tree. The sun was setting and Sam watched as Lilith's shadow rested on a tire-swing that hung for her, ready to serve as a throne for its bright-eyed queen. "Ooh, how fun!" Lilith heaved herself onto the black tire, squeezing both legs through the opening and allowed her head to fall back casually to gaze at the sky.

"Come on, Sam," she called back to the standing hunter whose entire body now seemed poisoned, a spreading desire to please Lilith filling Sam's being. "Give me a push, will ya?"

It was all Sam could do to try to steal a glance at a dying Dean beneath him who no doubt watched in equal horror and awe. But Lilith wouldn't even give him that. Sam heard Dean curse in pain while he simultaneously felt his face wrench forward back onto the grim visage of a supposedly pure little girl, just waiting to be pushed.

"Nah-ah-ah" Lilith waved her pointer finger from side to side. "Not until you swing me!" Instantly, Sam felt the overwhelming compulsion to walk to her. Each step Sam took was entirely under Lilith's sick control.

"You….sick…evil…little - " Sam battled to say what was on his mind, finding even that task beyond him.

"Watch your mouth!" Lilith screamed in forced surprise. "My virgin ears can't handle that kind of talk, Sam!" She shot him another smile and fluttered her eyelashes in mockery. As quickly as she had blinked, her smile suddenly vanished.

"Now COME."

Sam found himself suddenly behind Lilith's small body, her legs dangling and swinging to an inner song.

"Doo doo doo, dee doo," Lilith sang. She rocked her head from side to side to a tune that she'd invented, her eyes widening in pure glee when a pair of hands gently touched her shoulders…and pushed.

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Dean's vision faded in and out of focus. His pulse had dropped significantly, his rapid blood loss not even allowing his heart rate to rise as he watched the unbelievable events before him. Was he hallucinating? Rolling onto his stomach, teeth gritting as he breathed the dirt in, Dean witnessed Lilith's game too clearly. Sure enough, the bitch was there. On a tire swing, no less. And his baby brother's hunched form towered over her not as a warrior, but with the posture of the defeated and the broken.

"Sammy, no," he whispered.

"Oh, Sammy, yes! Higher!" Lilith squeeled, turning her face to the hunter that pushed her. Catching a glimpse of the dying hunter that still lay glaring at them, Lilith indulged in the moment.

"Oh WOW! Look!" She pointed back to Dean. "He's lost a lot of blood now, hasn't he?" Once again, Sam's servile body acquiesced to Lilith's every command. Though he didn't want to, his vision locked onto the nightmarish vision that was now covered in blood across the grass, not twenty yards from him.

Sam fought back tears, which remained the only visible sign of his remorse since Lilith controlled every other part of him. As he looked on, Sam noticed a series of growing shadows circling Dean's body. Ominously, the shadows below testified to the darkness that would come from above. Mechanically, hungrily the vultures preyed, beady eyes locked onto a meal that came not from attack, but from patience and the ineffable belief that Death will give unto those that wait.

"Poor, Deanie," Lilith let her foot drop to stall her momentary ride. "He looks like he's in so much pain."

Sam felt his muscles tighten, awaiting one small misstep, one fatal mistake on Lilith's part where he could lash out and stab the bitch through her black little heart. He barely had control over his thoughts, his own images and words mixing with Lilith's. _Please, please, no, Dean, he's my brother, god, bitch, kill you, serve you._

"I have an idea!" she yelped. Jumping from her tire swing, she began to skip towards Dean bloody body, stopping only to look back at Sam. "Well, silly billy, you need to come, too!"

Miles away, thunder clapped despite the clear skies and blisteringly hot sun. Lilith immediately drew her attention skyward. "Strange. Hmm. Oh well!" She continued towards Dean, kneeling right by his body and clapping her hands against her lap, signaling to Sam that she needed him like a master signals her dog.

"Here, boy! Come quick! And bring that gun!"

A new darkness crept behind Sam's eyes. His pulse quickened, while his stomach churned at the thought of what Lilith had in store. Again, thunder rolled in the distance that seemed to shake the earth beneath Lilith and the brothers.

With a sharp nod of her head, Lilith forced Dean onto his back with unseen hands. Dean fought to keep the mind-numbing pain away from his expression. He couldn't show weakness. Not to her.

"Listen, bitch, when I get a hold of you, I'm going to tear your tiny little head off and – " Dean said through clenched teeth, but his lips were immediately forced closed.

"Oh no, no, no, Deanie weenie," Lilith said, kneeling over Dean as if in prayer. "You'll be thanking me soon enough. Oh Saaaam?" she called to her new servant, musically and carefully.

Dean gripped his shoulder again, unaware of the hulking figure behind him.

Lilith peered up at her new pet's form, the sun behind him casting a piercing ray around Sam's body so that Dean could only see his silhouette. "Just put him out of his misery already."

The last Dean saw was a streak of lightning tear across the sky. The last he heard was the minute click of a gun preparing to roar, and all went into the black.

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	4. Chapter 4

**And now, the climax and conclusion!! Sorry, I worked on this on a laptop on a roadtrip...so if it seems disjointed or doesn't make sense, let me know! As always, I'm looking for tips, advice to make me write words gooder.**

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**Then: Lilith returned and had honed her skills. When we last left, Lilith had Sam under total control and was telling him to shoot Dean. **

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Two weeks later…

"Allow me to introduce myself," Lilith stormed into the diner, her reflection seen in the blackened pupils of her captive audience.

Despite the closed windows and doors, a chilling breeze cascaded along the rumors in the air and stirred her listeners. Fifty of them stared at the vile princess, now donning a sunflower sundress, her jelly slippers squeaking along the porcelain tiles.

"What you've heard is true," Lilith continued proudly. "The Winchesters are," and pausing for dramatic effect, fluttering an eyelash, she said, "ten feet under. And now I'm giving you the privilege to follow me. To take back hell. To give hell. And to pretty much do whatever the _hell_ I want."

She smiled as brightly as the sun that tore through the diner.

A heavy-set man whose shirt just about burst at the buttons bravely stood up. Cocking one eyebrow up above his blackened eyes, he asked the question on everyone's mind: "How did you do it?"

Lilith bit her lip and looked up to the ceiling that was plastered with Elvis posters, Coca-Cola signs, and an endless array of 50's memorabilia that the owner probably thought would add flair to his restaurant. With an Etruscan smile, intoxicatingly smug, Lilith reminisced on her greatest achievement.

The memory made her warm inside, like a dream filled with gumdrops, rainbows, pitchforks, and fire.

_There Sam stood. The desert air, hot and sticky, assailed her senses. The older hunter lay pathetic on the grass with a face petrified, shivering, and crying. _

"_Please, no, please, no," Dean had begged. _

_Lilith had clapped her hands, tossing her head back and wishing, just wishing, she could hold this moment forever. Licking her lips, she gave the final push to her most prized possession – Sam. _

"_Do it, Sam. Kill Dean. Now," Lilith demanded. Oh how Sam fought. How he trembled. His knuckles were whiter than his face. To Lilith's increasing joy, a small drop of blood had started to formulate beneath his nose. He was struggling so much. So beautifully! Just like she had imagined._

_So perfectly, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, stimulating the senses and increasing the tension. At that very moment, her slave with his absent eyes seared himself shut and a shot rang out. The only eyes left open were hers to behold the heavenly vision: a treasure of crimson blood like rose petals fell from Dean's heart in offering to Lilth's rule. _

_Squealing, jumping, swirling, unable to keep in her joy, Lilith rose to give the shivering hunter one last hug. _

"_Oh, you did it! You killed that Deanie Weenie!" Embracing Sam's leg, she looked up slowly like a precious moment ceramic doll, adoring her big brother._

"_And now it's your turn." So perfect. So clear. He fell. And again, Lilith smiled._

The demons within the diner looked on at their new ruler with awe. The time had come. With the Winchesters truly defeated, the last seals could be broken and Lucifer would rise to an already crumbling world. Today, they would join on the side that wins. Today, they would destroy the innocents. The children would go first, lured by one of their own. How sweet it all would be.

These demons were Lilith's true followers. The lucky. The chosen. And they would follow and serve her until the end.

"So it is true, then?" the same bloated man asked.

Raising one thumb up, the blond-headed child responded, "You got it, dude." Instantly, the bloated demon that had been so brave to ask a question toppled over his red-vinyl chair, his own eyes bleeding onto the floor below him. Within seconds, his body had convulsed and found a grave on the floor beneath him.

Looking pleased with herself, Lilith ended, "And that's what will happen to anyone that defies me. Any questions?"

Hands locked behind her back, Lilith paced the room, waiting for silence.

"Good. Time to play!" She shot her hands into the air when a crackle of light and sound crashed through the barriers of the diner's walls.

It was unlike anything she had heard before. She felt the attention from her demon audience falter, now looking at the skies outside their windows. Blue. Crystal clear. Again.

Lilith's heart skipped a beat at nature's cry, and she jumped. From excitement? Yes, that was it.

"Now," Lilith felt her lips form the words, her mind forced to forget about the minor disturbance. "What shall we do first?"

Another loud crash resounded through her ears, bringing Lilith to her knees this time. The rest of the demons, not as heavily affected by the sound, watched their new ruler fall so curiously at what was mere thunder.

"What the hell is that?!" Lilith stammered, angrily. And why did it hurt her ears so much?

Another member of her audience, feeling a glint of bravery and hunger, stood out from behind the cash register. The demon straightened the apron on its meat suit and found the nerve to speak, "You…are…hurt?"

Lilith spun her eyes and glared at the insolent woman before her and spit out, "I'm FINE." With a clench of her fist, Lilith sent the waitress flying across the room. The body crashed through plates and finally fell into a satisfying crunch of broken bones and twisted necks. Determined not to lose her power over her first disciples from a mere tumble, Lilith immediately shot up.

"You won't speak unless SPOKEN TO!" Lilith screamed. The diner's windows shattered and sliced into the skins of half her audience, as she intended. Lilith had been a demon far too long to know that one small mistake, one vulnerability or show of weakness, would bring hell onto the poor demon that was too stupid to figure out the rules.

De-ruffling her dress, Lilith stood once more at the center of attention, before a trembling, if not confused, audience of black eyes.

"I tell you when to _speak_. I tell you when to _breath_. I tell you when to – " Hiccup.

Lilith stopped cold. What was happening? She continued.

"I tell you when to _die_. I tell you when to _eat_. You belong to –" Hiccup.

A muffled giggle from the back corner brought Lilith into a rage. He stomach churned at the idea that perhaps the skin she had chosen maintained too many childish weaknesses with which to lead an army.

"Who laughed?!" Lilith realized that she was losing what she prized most from her minions.

Fear.

A rustling of feet and heavier breathing made Lilith all too aware of the looseness around her.

She was losing their fear.

A demon to her left, dressed in work slacks and grey business coat, coughed casually, muttering something under his breath.

Were they mocking her? The audacity, the boldness, the stupidity.

Lilith flew over to the business man's table, hopping onto its imitation granite top. Looming over the all-too comfortable demon, she didn't blink as she seared her own white eyes into those opposite hers.

"_What_ did you say?" Her voice never wavered.

"Nothing, my queen…" the man stuttered in a show of fear, though something seemed off. Forced, even. "Nothing imp-important…just…"

She examined the dark clouds that peered back at her. Yes, something was indeed off. Something familiar stared back at her. Bringing her face closer to his, Lilith ignored the quiet rumbling that seemed to echo from the ground beneath her. The human heart, long dead inside her, would have lurched. The skin that battled her demon essence rose into tiny pinpricks. Mere inches away, Lilith could now smell the man before her, if only she would breathe him in.

"Just what?" Lilith said in an ancient voice.

The demon businessman, turned his head ever so slightly and craned his neck so that his lips graced Lilith's delicate ear.

"Just…"

Without a thought, Lilith's entire body suddenly fell into an uncontrollable hunger for this moment. Feral-like, she pressed her ear against the man's soft lips, straining to hear words that were barely a whisper. She ignored the pounding behind her eyes. She ignored the flames in her stomach. She pushed all signs of pain that had erupted within her as a result of this overwhelming _need_, as if all that mattered were the words that would fall like drugs from this demon's lips, soothing her once and for all and bringing her to everlasting peace.

He sighed. "Time to play."

Stealthily, an invisible hand closed its icy grip around Lilith's eyes, shredding the wool that had been placed over them, tearing away with claw-like fingers at the false images that were so delicately placed there.

Lilith's mouth twisted in horror as she fell to all fours, petrified at the black eyed demon that still sat before her.

"You," she coughed. A crushing realization set upon the demon that would be queen. A memory that had once been so sweet, twisted in her mouth and exchanged its nature to something like bile rising her throat as flashes of new memories ripped through her cerebrum.

_Yes, there Sam stood. It was all too clear. _That memory did not change.

_The desert air. That pathetic Dean, wrenching beneath her kneeling disposition. Yes, yes, _Lilith thought, her small form now crawling along the diner's checker-patterned floor. _"Do it Sam. Kill Dean," _her own saccharine voice echoed through her mind.

"_Now!" She commanded the looming figure before her, gun violently shaking as the blood fell to Sam's lips. _

_It was all perfect. So clear. So bright._

_So bright?_

_Before Lilith had a chance to think, lightning struck her vision and the scenery changed. No longer was she staring up at her shivering slave with a pistol, a weakened Winchester. _

_Now, she could only see Dean, whose expression screamed up to her through her mind. _

_Standing before the dying hunter, Lilith saw Dean through a new pair of eyes. She felt her own right hand gripping the cold steel of a gun. Her teeth grit against each other, fighting back the invisible force that was compelling her to shoot, driving her to kill._

_Could it be? Was she watching Dean through Sam's eyes at those last moments? It couldn't be!_

_Dean's watery eyes reached out and into her, like only a brother could, and with look filled with both terror and realization, Dean silently communicated a single message that Lilith didn't, understand:_

"_Use it. Use everything we got."_

Another flash, but this time it came from the fluorescent lights above a now stirring diner. The demons around Lilith watched the strange display of their ruler that looked less like a queen and more like a child each passing moment, writhe and tear at a nightmare apparent only to her.

Sniveling and gagging upon the cold wet floor, Lilith finally tore herself from the vision. She blinked the tears away and beheld the new horrors within her mind.

Her chest rose and fell, though it didn't need oxygen.

"What the fuck, what the fuck?" the child growled, voice deep and hollow.

The black-eyed demons began circling their weakened queen, lead by the demon in slacks and the grey business coat. Fiddling with his cufflinks, the tall demon grinned. The fluorescent lights flickered once more and Lilith was again transported to that day two weeks ago.

"_Kill him, now!" Lilith screamed again, still looking down and kneeling over Dean's body, waiting for his death. Dean had refused to return her gaze, staring past her only to see the hellish visage of his brother with what had once been terror._

_Now, Lilith saw in Dean's face a new emotion that washed over him so quickly she almost missed it. Breaking free from his paralysis, Dean's eyes widened and immediately shut again in a manner awaiting explosion. When Lilith looked up, Sam was no longer trembling._

"_What are you doing? Shoot h--" Lilith began, but stopped suddenly as she saw Sam's face. Once hidden in the shadows by the setting sun behind him, a new light now rested in his blue eyes._

"_No," Sam said coolly, pulling the gun back so that it rested against his shoulder, pointing the sky. He let his vision follow the barrel upwards, as well, allowing his head to fall back and take in a deep breath._

"_No? No?!" Lilith cried, a petulant child who was unaccustomed to defiance. _

_However, Sam could barely hear her. Lilith's demands echoed somewhere along the sands of the desert, but with a single look from his brother, the world was now opening up in a new way to him. The damns inside him were breaking, rivers of raw energy and power raced through him without limitation. If he wasn't careful, he could drown in their dark depths, but taking another breath, he slowed the raging waters. Easing the firing synapses in his mind, Sam fought to hold himself back, ready to reignite them at any given time._

_It was greed that had overtaken the others, an inability to control it all, but true control meant sacrifice. Dean had taught him that all too well. Dean had sacrificed himself, defied is own fears, and finally given up the control._

_He had accepted Sam for who he was. A hunter like him. Like Dean._

_Dean!_

_The world snapped back into focus, reality forming around Sam's will as he battled to keep the electric currents from searing him just beneath his skin. _

"_Gah, you bitch!" Dean roared, who was currently at Lilith's mercy. She had decided to do the deed herself. Her tiny fingers were splayed across his forehead and were releasing unimaginable pain into his body. Whatever she was doing to him coupled with the pain that the gunshot wound caused, and Dean bled onto the red stained grass._

_That was all Sam needed to see before his hand instinctively shot up and sent Lilith flying backwards, crashing furiously against the mailbox across the yard. Despite his pain, Dean looked up at his little brother in disbelief.  
_

Did Sammy just do that?

_Sam had to fight against the pressures inside of him that hungered to push Lilith farther. If he had let his walls down, Sam knew, with a mere though he could have sent Lilith into a neighboring county. _

"_Dean!" Sam shouted, forgetting the demon and running over to his brother's side. Horror filled Sam's face as he examined the bullet wound on Dean's shoulder. "Oh God, Dean, you'll be okay, we'll get you some help."_

_Dean grimaced in pain as Sam hoisted him up into a seated position. _

"_Sam, wait," Dean mumbled._

"_We'll get you to a hospital. It will be fine," Sam said, ignoring him, avoiding eye-contact._

"_Sam, would you just look at me. Sam," Dean struggled against his brother's efforts, who was now slinging his arms across his shoulders._

_Sam was purposefully pretending not to hear his big brother, purposefully wanting to avoid whatever questions he might have, whatever visions he wanted to see._

"_Sam WAIT!" Dean's voice boomed._

_Sam froze, finally locking eyes with his big brother, afraid for what Dean might see. Afraid for what Dean might think._

_The look on Dean's face said it all. When Sam finally raised his eyes into Dean's own, if only for a split second, the emotion was clear: Awe. _

_Before Sam could say anything, Dean quickly shut him up._

"_Dude," Dean said, attempting ease despite the pain, "cool trick."_

_Sam breathed a sigh of relief. No freakboy. No evil mojo. No mention of Yellow Eyes. When staring down Sam's gun, Dean had meant it. _

"_Shit, Dean," Sam said, smiling, "forget about it. Hospital. Now. Demon. Now." Sam didn't want to waste anymore time. Lilith was probably waking from her unconscious state and the bitch probably wasn't going to go skipping off into the sunset without a fight._

_Before Sam could turn his predatory blue eyes back on Lilith, Dean placed a firm grip on his brother's shoulder. _

"_Wait, Sam," Dean said. _

"_What?"_

"_Don't kill the bitch," Dean stated._

"_What?!" Sam shouted, nearly dropping Dean as they both struggled to stand._

"_I have a plan. Trust me. Hospital first," he continued, hand braced against his injury._

Another flash and the lighting in the entire diner went out. Sparks of electricity illuminated black-eyed patrons at ghostly intervals, lending to the ominous air about them.

Lilith had finally stopped jerking on the floor, a miniature creature amidst the fanged wolfish creatures that continued to circle her.

"Tricks…tricks…" she seethed, ranting crazily. She whipped her head about, trying to find the mysterious man in slacks, but he, like the memories, were fading fast.

"All of this…illusion… tricks!" she salivated onto the floor. The demons closed in on her, wolves preparing to perpetuate their survival by eliminating the weak. Lilith had faltered in her rise to power. She had clearly lost her mind. And now was the time to weed her out.

And as they closed in, Lilith covered her ears to block out the voice in her head.

_Someone's been a bad girl, _a fatherly voice echoed inside of her head. _Do you need a time out? _

"Get out of my head!" Lilith hissed. "Games! All games!"

Slowly, Lilith raised her head to the entrance of the diner where two silhouettes stared back at her. She could vaguely make out each of their faces, but they were clearly staring straight down at her. Could nobody else see them?

The older hunter cupped his hand around the taller hunter's ear, whispering something inaudible into it. Lips curled into a sneer, the taller one spoke the words that only Lilith could hear.

"Play time's over."

*************

The hunters pulled out of the diner's driveway, looking back only to see if the rising smoke and flames would be a danger to the desert around them.

Shivering and rocking in the backseat of the Impala, a shattered demon sat, eyes blank and mumbling something incoherent.

"You think she'll be okay?" Dean asked.

Sam looked behind him at the blond little girl whose eyes were as white as her face.

"Yeah, she'll be fine, till she leads us to the next demon haunt," Sam replied. "Hey, good plan, by the way."

"Thanks," Dean said, throwing on a pair of sunglasses. "But something tells me you're having a little too much fun torturing our little hellion."

"What? Like she doesn't deserve it?"

Dean pursed his lips and nodded in agreement, taking one last look into his rear-view at the silent puppet, whose face was stolen and now forever used to bring the prey to the predators like so much bait.

Truly, the Winchesters had known fear, but they knew how to hunt, by using everything they got.

END.

**So was it what you expected? Did it make sense? All reviews appreciated! I worked hard to make it different. But I know...duh...it's me, I'm kind of obsessed with the dark Sam stuff...:)**


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